This oral appliance is a body, having a curved trough sized to fit over the lower anterior teeth, to protect the user""s teeth in the event of the user""s clenching and/or grinding of his teeth and to reduce facial muscle tension and tooth wear.
Grinding and clenching of the teeth have been shown to increase under stress and by anticipation of stressful events. The increased pressure and lateral movement against tooth surfaces produce fractures and/or wearing down of teeth surfaces.
Grinding and clenching also cause increased tension and contraction of facial musculature. This can cause facial pain and can contribute to muscle tension headaches and migraines. Increased muscle tension and contraction cause fatigue, spasming and cramping of the facial muscles resulting in pain and limitation of motion of the mandible. Patients suffering from these symptoms are typically treated with a mouth appliance such as described by Norton in U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,766 and Sullivan in U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,386.
The appliances generally used are custom made by the dentist for covering the user""s full upper or lower arches. Unfortunately, in most cases, full arch appliances still allow the grinding and clenching to exist on the appliance, without long lasting marked reduction in facial muscular tension and contractions. Other appliances as described by Hays in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,203 and by Boyd, Sr., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,656 are used on the upper teeth. These upper appliances can allow for the opposing mandibular canine teeth to come in contact with the appliance. The contact of the opposing canine teeth with the appliance initiates increased facial muscular tension.
Most appliances are custom fabricated and fitted by a In dentist for the individual, usually at a prohibitive cost of hundreds to thousands of dollars. Other appliances can be ingested, inhaled or lost, thereby causing danger and cost to the user.
Therefore, there is a continuing need for simplifying and improving means and methods for the prevention of damage to teeth and in the reduction of facial muscular tension and contraction as it relates to facial pain, headaches, migraines and temporomandibular disorders.
In order to aid in the understanding of this invention, it can be stated in essentially summary form that it is directed to an oral appliance which is comprised of a body having a curved trough on the under side thereof for the placement therein of thermoplastic material for fitting onto the lower anterior teeth, i.e., the mandibular incisors. The body includes a flattened raised ramp extending anteriorly and posteriorly on the top of the appliance when the appliance is set over the lower incisors to prevent contact between the upper and lower posterior teeth and to prevent the opposing upper canine teeth from coming into contact with the lower teeth or with the appliance. The ramp is sufficiently wide to contact at least part of one of the two upper center incisors and preferably both of them.
It is thus a purpose and advantage of this invention to provide the user with a self-fitting, customized appliance for placement on the lower incisors without the need of seeing a dentist for fabrication, fitting and adjustments of the appliance. The placement of the oral appliance on the lower incisors is very much superior to placement on the upper arch. A phonetic advantage is achieved because placement of an appliance on the upper arch interferes with the tongue position during speaking while placement on the mandible incisors permits the user to speak more clearly. Similarly, the placement of the oral appliance on the mandible is aesthetically superior because it is less visible, being largely hidden behind the upper incisors and the lips.
It is another purpose and advantage of this invention to provide a prefabricated curved trough to correspond to the general curvature of the lower central and/or lateral incisors which is retained by a thermoplastic material within the trough. After heating and molding of the thermoplastic material, the appliance is placed over the lower incisor teeth.
It is a further purpose and advantage of this invention to provide a self-fitting customized appliance which has a flat, raised ramp parallel to the horizontal line of the bite which in allows the upper central incisor teeth to rest on this ramp, discluding the remaining posterior and canine teeth even when the mandible is moved in all excursions.
It is a further purpose and advantage of this invention to provide an oral appliance which has a hollow channel for a necklace line to be inserted to help prevent ingestion, inhalation and/or loss of the appliance.
It is a further purpose and advantage of this invention to provide an oral appliance which has a reservoir in its posterior extension which allows for a radio-opaque material to be placed within. This provides a radiographic means of location if ingested or inhaled.